On 19 July 2007, Stuttgart, Germany, an International Jury chose 30 teams for the final of the worldwide Mondialogo Engineering Award 2007. This contest is part of the “Mondialogo Intercultural Dialogue and Exchange” initiative launched by DaimlerChrysler and UNESCO in October 2003.

A total of 3,200 students of engineering sciences from 89 countries registered for the second edition of the Engineering Award. Key factors for the submitted projects to achieve a nomination for the final were their creativity and quality, pursuit of the United Nations’ Millennium Goals and feasibility. The intensity of intercultural dialogue and the exchange knowledge between the trainee engineers also played a crucial role in the adjudication by Jury members.

Each project team is made up of students from two technical universities or colleges, one group from a developing country and the other from an industrialized nation. The teams had six months in which to devise a technical solution that will have a direct practical benefit for the population of a developing country and help to improve the quality of life there. This year, many projects focus on clean drinking water and using renewable energies in poor rural areas, see Nominees and Project List.

At the beginning of December 2007, the nominated teams will attend the Mondialogo Symposium in Mumbai, India, where the best of them will be honoured with the Engineering Award. The ten winning teams can look forward to cash prizes each worth €20,000. Another twenty teams will receive an honorary award, each worth €5,000.